Naked in Death

I enjoyed this book. Not as good as the Key trilogy (my other Roberts venture) but still good. Eve Dallas is a great, tough, interesting character and I want to read more books in the series. Here's the deal: female characters in genre fiction are becoming more and more interesting to me than women in literary fiction. I read a lot of literary fiction by “serious female writers” for my book club. I'm getting disappointed in the decisions (or lack thereof) of female characters. Stuff just happens to them! They aren't in control of events or the narrative! WTF? It's almost 2010 folks, and woman isn't synonymous with victim. I used to just think it was the Oprah books but it's more than that. Anyway, more women's fiction on the horizon for me. I'm getting on the ranty bandwagon with Jennifer Weiner.

2.5 stars. My mistake in reading this book is going in expecting a mystery-thriller with some romance elements. In fact, it is a hybrid of full blown romance and police procedural mystery, swinging in between those two genres for most of the book. My mismatched expectations probably contributed to lessen my enjoyment for this book, but overall, it was a quick and decent read.

The book opens with a rather grisly murder of a “licensed companion”, Sharon DeBlass, who also happens to be the granddaughter of a US Senator. The murderer also leaves behind a calling card stating the Sharon is just one out of six murders. Lt. Eve Dallas is put in charge of the investigations, and is personally committed to preventing five more lives from being lost. The prime suspect of the case, Irish businessman and tycoon Roarke, also proves to be unexpectedly attractive.

As I've already mentioned, I might've enjoyed this book better if I had known beforehand that it was going to be half-mystery and half-romance. But I didn't. So I spent at least the first half of the book feeling a little confused at why there was so much emphasis on Dallas and Roarke's budding mutual interest in each other, and a lot less being said on the actual investigation or finding out more about other suspects besides Roarke.

A huge issue I had with this book was that - I just didn't like Roarke for most of it. The thing he had with Eve was pretty much insta-lust which is already a trope that I'm not really a fan of in romance novels. Then there's this male alpha dominant courtship style that is his way of flirting with Eve, which I am very repulsed by in general, although I can see why this wasn't so bad when the book was written in the mid-90's. This is, of course, very subjective.

He pursues Eve somewhat relentlessly even when she's pushing him away. It's best exemplified when he basically breaks into her house (he does own the building she lives in but honestly I don't think that made a difference in his decision) to wait for her to come home. Although he has no sinister intentions, and really only wanted to see her and give her food, this invasion of her privacy (which she does call out) doesn't seem to matter to him at all - in fact, when he tells himself that he's not going to snoop around her apartment to see her stuff, he thinks: “It was not so much respect for her privacy as it was the challenge she presented that provoked him to discover her from the woman alone rather than her surroundings.” Even when he's in her house, he starts smoking and she says, “I didn't say you could smoke in here.” and instead of putting out his cigarette, he just says, “You didn't arrest me for breaking and entering, you're not going to arrest me for smoking.” I meaaan... to each their own, but this style of aggressive male dominance just didn't sit well for me.

What was extremely confusing to me was how much energy this book spent on trying to establish Roarke as the prime suspect. I felt that it was clear, as the love interest, that he wasn't going to be the killer. I just wasn't convinced, from anything I've read in the book, that J D Robb was going to pull that sort of twist - and I was correct in the end. His status as a suspect was really just to create some added tension in the burgeoning romance between him and Eve, which I thought didn't work out very well. I spent almost the whole book feeling no tension whatsoever because, while there were other suspicious characters around, we didn't spend remotely enough time with them to know who else we could suspect.

The way the investigation was conducted was also very strangely lax. Eve wants to investigate Roarke's gun collection, as Sharon DeBlass was killed by a gun, which is considered an antique weapon to get one's hands on by the time this book is set in the year 2058, and it just happens that Roarke is one of the few rich people around who has a collection of them. She does so not by showing up unannounced and therefore with an element of surprise, but in fact makes an appointment with Roarke to meet him at his house to see his collection. Roarke takes this opportunity to wine and dine Eve, preparing a candlelit dinner and whatnot as a precursor to touring her around his gun collection. She accepts being wined and dined. What kind of investigation is this?! Later on, when she repeatedly asks Roarke the same questions regarding his relationship to the victim, he sighs in frustration and she takes this as “a very good sign of his innocence”. What?!

I'll say that the last 25% of the book got more engaging to me because Eve and Roarke are finally in some vague sort of relationship and I no longer have to deal with Roarke's male-dominance act, he in fact becomes a lot more tolerable and caring with Eve when he's not trying to court her and also because the story finally starts to become more focused on the resolution of the mystery instead of swinging between that and the budding romance all the time. The revelations at the end were quite heavy and might be triggering topics to some, but I felt that they were dealt with in a fairly in-depth way that didn't make light of the subject matter, an approach that I could get behind.

Overall, this was a decent read that had its pros and cons, although I wouldn't say it was an easy read at all because while it sometimes seemed frivolous, it dealt with some pretty heavy subject matters.

The Sci-Fi world is not a major role in the story. This book is more of a Sci-fi backdrop, murder mystery with some romance thrown in. I like the strong, clear writing. The mystery was good. I like the hint that even though there have been advances some themes will always remain constant in the world of money, and politics. What rubbed the wrong way was the change of POV in from one sentence to another. Became a bit jarring at times.

The main character, Eve, is a very strong, independent, and smart female lead. Not sure how I feel about Roarke, the love interest, who is smart and strong but can be alpha at times. In these Alpha time I find Eve holds her own and that allows Roarke to grow on the reader. But in the beginning he comes off as a creeper and it's hard to shake that image.

I guess I'll just start with the bad news: I will admit there were a number of scenes in this book that made me very uncomfortable. I had a really hard time reading from the POV of the murderer and the pedophilia notes were very weird (a.k.a. not something I usually read in my free time since I study psychology and have to read all about the real thing a lot). The main ‘romantic' scene was a bit rape-y in that she was clearly saying no, not now.
The good news: I rather enjoyed the crime procedural, though it wasn't anything new and most it had that written-in-1995-feel, which makes sense as that was when it was written.
I like Eve and felt that she was portrayed as strong and interesting, she would be a reason to read on in the series. And I have always had a pretty intense weakness for tall Irish men, so Roarke. He is intelligent and mysterious, if a little too forceful and stalker-y. He seems perfect... to perfect? Though I don't know that the author gave me much to help me believe he would fall for Eve... anybody else feel this way?
Eve's friend Mavis provided a nice bit of comic relief and I enjoyed her take on the world and her interaction with Eve. She was incredibly charming with a cold (hard thing to pull off). I hope she is prominent in the rest of the series.
I'm interested to read the next book and see how it goes from there...

I picked this book up at random as available from the library. It claimed to be sci fi detective...ok. Not horribly engaging through the first half but I figured I'd finish it. Annoying they had to create sexual tension with the suspect but once it went rape porn I lost all interest and respect. A good story can withstand lack of sex, and good erotica can create sexual tension without a lack of consent. I don't normally rate a book I haven't finished, but our society could use more modeling for consent, not less.

Good crime thriller set in a near future USA. The primary characters are Eve Dallas, a New York police lieutenant, and Roarke (just one name), a smooth, mysterious, and very rich fellow with whom Eve becomes involved both professionally and emotionally.
A fast paced whodunit. A fun and fast read. Some well-done sexy bits. There are multiple bad guys, but the primary is really wicked and very smart. Along the way Eve has to deal with the demons of her own past.
3.5 stars. After several days of reflection in which the book refused to get out of my head, I decided to round it up.

CWs: rape, rape fantasies, murder, sexual assault, violence, child abuse, paedophilia, incest, anti sex work, sexual content, misogyny

I really REALLY wish I'd checked out the content warnings before I started this. The best way to describe this series from what I can tell is futuristic Law and Order SVU and considering I had to read a Nora Roberts book for a reading challenge, this seemed like a book that I might have enjoyed.

sigh

Our protagonist is Eve Dallas, a cop whose sole purpose in life is her job. Through the course of the book we find out that she was abused and raped by her father until 8 years old, upon which she went into the foster system. It also turns out that her father wanted to be her pimp??? And didn't even name her because he just saw her as something he could sell/profit from and not an actual person. Literally wtf.

During the investigation of the case covered in this book, she meets a mysterious/hot/rich man named Roarke who quickly becomes a suspect. But of course they have undeniable tension blah blah blah. He falls in insta love with her and does creepy things because of it (breaking into her apartment, keeping a button that fell off her clothing and not wanting to return it etc.) Eve battles with herself over her attraction to Roarke vs not getting involved with him because he's a murder suspect (listen to your instincts girl) which I don't understand because in one of their first meetings he sexually assaults her?? I would've arrested him right there but she just laughs it off and is still into him. As their ‘romance' progresses, they have an interaction where Roarke rapes her. Honestly I was digusted. She says no. He doesn't listen and penetrates her. He gets angry. But instead of it being shown for what it actually is, it's posited more that their chemistry is so undeniable that he couldn't help himself and obviously it's what she really wanted and it just adds to their romance. NO.

At the end of the book when Eve confronts the killer (who has broken into her apartment, hmm sounds like someone else in this book), guess what, he also gets violent with her and threatens to rape and kill her. Seriously, this woman cannot catch a break and I can't tell if J. D. Robb (Nora Roberts) is trying to comment on rape culture and how often and casually women are threatened by men, if she genuinely hates her main character, or if she doesn't realise how often she's put Eve in situations like this.

There are elements of a good book here, but the amount of rape and child abuse just turned me completely off.

💬: “That was the biggest problem with getting used to someone, she thought. You were lonely when they weren’t there."

Robb, J.D.. Naked in Death (In Death, Book 1) (p. 347). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: romance, dark, thriller, mystery, crime, suspense

📚Page Count: 373

🎧Audiobook Length: 10h 17min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️ 2/5

TW - <spoiler>Incest, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Blood, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Violence, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Child abuse, and Gore</spoiler>

Naked in Death is the first book in the "In Death" series by J.D Robb (who is actually romance writer, Nora Roberts). In the year 2058 Detective Eve Dallas is residing in New York when she gets a case where a senator's daughter is murdered and it's discovered that the vicitim was a full service sex worker. The case then becomes a high profile case and Dallas enters a world of politics in order to track down the killer. While the case is taking place, Dallas becomes enthralled with Roarke, one of the leading suspects. Is Dallas' attraction to Roarke leading her to disaster or will she find the murderer and close the case?

I think overall this story was okay, there were things I liked and things I didn't like. I really have issues with Roarke because <spoiler>he's very controlling and seems to not take "no" for an answer.</spoiler> I found it a bit disturbing how the sex workers in the book were talked about but I keep trying to remind myself that this was written in 1995 and there are going to be some characters who are against sex workers because of prejudice so their dialogue about the sex workers reflects that. I did like how this takes place in the future, and all the futuristic and scientific advancements and inventions in the story were clever and very interesting. I also like how I didn't guess what the ending was going to be until it was already in motion and being explained to the reader.

The spicy scenes in here were either the beginning of murder scenes or they were intended to be sexy but were lacking consent, and in these instances it was evident that this novel was written in the 90s. The love interest has the idea that he knows what the main character wants more than she does, and so he's not respecting her boundaries. In fact, the love interest keeps pushing up against Eve's boundaries in the hopes that he can bend them. I'm giving it zero chilies 🌶️🌶️ out of five chilies.

Overall, this novel had it's issues but it also had some interesting elements. I think the lack of consent when it came to the love interest was a big issue with the story. I really enjoyed the ending, it was action packed and even though I still had questions at the end I definitely didn't guess that it was going to end the way it did. Instead of giving this novel 1 stars for the lack of consent all throughout, I'm giving this 2 stars out of 5.

⭐️⭐️

2/5

I listened to this audiobook for free on [Libbyapp.com]

I was aware of this series and I knew it was romantic suspense but I DIDN'T know that it's also set in the future?? It's wild but of course I enjoyed it, Our Lady Nora/JD is so great at creating compelling characters & relationships of all sorts. And heroic animals of course!

http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-118-naked-in-death/

I decided to take a break from my ARCs and give this one a go. 📚 Everyone always seems to rave about it so I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about. 🙏 Unfortunately, I wasn't as enamored by it. 🙈 One, I need to do a better job of reading synopses. Or in this case, reading it at all. Had I done that I would have cottoned on to the fact that the author set this series in the future. 🚀 So right off the bat I was MEH about the setting. 🙍 That was strike one. Second, I couldn't stand Eve. I found her cold, bitchy, and annoying. 😒 I will assume she gets better in the 40+ other books she is featured in. So I may give book two a read just to see. That was strike two. ❎ Strike three came with that ending. Holy abruptness Batman. It just ENDED. 💯🔚 Like WTF?? 😣

So ya, this one wasn't overly great for me. 😫 Like I said I'll probably give book two a read at some point just to see if Eve ever actually becomes likable. But I don't see myself intrigued enough to read 40+ books with these characters.⏰

The opening of JD Robb's cyberthriller introduces us to Eve Dallas, a no-nonsense police officer who is great at her job, but not as skilled when it comes to personal relationships. A case is thrown on her doorstep that is so dastardly evil, she must step outside the lines of her job as a public official to track down a killer and come to grips with her past in the process.

// The year is 2058, and a few ladies of the night have been murdered in a way that showcases the egotistical nature of the killer. The police find letters of intent, vintage weapons, and scrubbed video, which sets them down a path to bring justice to the victims. \

To me, the book seems a bit to written and hops to conclusions faster than you can say “Book ‘em, Danno.” It never really takes it's let time setting up interesting characters and it meanders it's way through the police procedural elements as well. It's a bit confusing as a whole. On one side, it does its best to play up the political intrigue, but it always seems to find a way to bog it down with on-the-nose statements that, surprisingly, are still a bit relevant today. For example, Eve uses her wit and cunning to pull some strings to patch together a few suspects from some pretty flimsy evidence. One of whom, she starts to sleep with. When confronted about it by her colleagues, she states that she can “sniff” it out that he is not a suspect and that they should all trust her instincts. Eye-rolling's aplenty.

The problem with the book Is that it never truly puts it's mark in the sand declaring it a hard boiled police drama or a steamy revenge thriller. It does everything ok, but I would have enjoyed it more if it was more subtle and focused on the police work or tipped the scales to one side and became much more unhinged. The final confrontation is a tried and true info dump with no teeth. It could only be a handful of people, but the person chosen was pretty obvious. The subject matter is quite distressing and deplorable, but to me, it was used to trigger heartfelt emotions in characters I didn't feel that drawn to.

It's fine, I guess, and the series must be popular because there are a mountain of sequels, but this caper didn't really draw me in.

──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗── 2.5 ★'s ──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗──

The history is very interesting but, what the hell Roarke??? First: who doesn't have a last (or is it first?) name?? Who does he think that the is? Cher?
Two: How creepy is the fact that he keeps breaking and entering Eve's house? I don't know what is worst, she finding him inside her house after she just met him or he forcing her door after she decides not to see him. Soooooo creepy!!!